Archangel: A Novel

Paul Watkins

Nov 2011 · Sold by Random House

About this ebook

“An outstandingly intelligent and significant novel” about greed and environmental devastation from the author of the Booker Prize-nominated Night Over Day Over Night  

*Booklist
 
Logger Noah Mackenzie has a bitter history with the Algonquin wilderness, and now he’s determined to clear-cut the part he considers his own. The only person in the remote Maine town of Abenaki Junction putting up any fight for the forest is Madeleine Cody, publisher of a small newspaper, the Forest Sentinel.
 
Using the paper to draw attention to the plight of the Algonquin forest, Madeleine has endeavored to put an end to excessive deforestation, through nonviolent means. But when Adam Gabriel—an ex-fighter pilot, Abenaki Junction born-and-raised—returns to the town from spiking trees out West, the protest takes a dangerous new direction.
 
Praise for Archangel
 
“Paul Watkins is without question one of the most gifted writers of his generation.”—Tobias Wolff
 
“Crisp, satisfying . . . . The forest over which the characters are struggling takes on a memorable vibrancy and life.”—Elle
 
“Rich characterizations and a seamless narrative bring to roaring life this tale of environmental conflict. . . . Watkins evokes the grandeur of the woods as well as the wild unpredictability of both natural and social violence.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
“A wonderful literary adventure novel, squarely in the tradition of Deliverance and Legends of the Fall.”—Howard Frank Mosher

Ratings and reviews

I downloaded this book by accident but decided to give it a try. I hoped as the book progressed it would get better but I was mistaken. An opening sequence and character background stories that were never expanded. Unrealistic progression of events too conveniently concluded added to my frustration with this book. Don't waste your time.

About the author

Paul Watkins was born in 1964. He is the son of Welsh parents and was educated at the Dragon School, at Eton and at Yale. His novels include Night Over Day Over Night, Calm at Sunset, Calm at Dawn, In the Blue Light of African Dreams, The Promise of Night, Archangel, The Story of My Disappearance and The Forger. He has also written about his experiences at public school, in Stand Before Your God. He was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1992 and 1996, and won the Winifred Holtby Prize for Best Regional Novel of the Year in 1996. He lives in the USA.